Sheep in Spring

I've been working on this for a while and have finally finished it. The inspiration for this wall hanging (which measures about 35" finished) was a pattern by Janet Claire. It was for a small quilt (9" x 5") with sheep and crow pictured on it. I loved the sheep and crow.....so enlarged those by 200% (or somewhere around there). Then had the wonderful idea of doing a scrappy background using 6" squares.....of which I have a ton of and the number never seems to get any smaller. The appliqued flowers were born one night as I was looking at what was finished so far. The center seemed like it needed something to finish it up. It wasn't until I went outside to see my sheep that I noticed all the buttercups that had sprung up all over the place....in what seems like overnight. This was exactly what my quilt needed. And the buttercups were born. :.)

What makes this quilt a bit different from the others that I have done is that it is the first one that I have ever done on my Pfaff 7550. I decided it was time to see exactly what the Pfaff could do (just about everything!!) and the Bernina really needed to be taken in to get cleaned. I discovered that the Pfaff does beautiful machine applique....is easy to use.....and has several advantages over my Bernina when it comes to machine quilting. I also discovered that the Bernina has a larger throat space and the bobbins can hold a bit more. All in all.....I really love both machines and hope to have them both set up for use someday.

Now a bit on the machine quilting....of which I'm very happy with. :.) In the sky area I chose to do a Baptist Fan pattern. The applique was all outlined and a curly pattern was done in the sheep....with the hopes of giving it a bit more "woolly" look. The flowers (as the bird) were outlined. The grass area was done using a small meandering pattern. The dark areas of the scrappy half square triangles were done using a 1/4" outline....repeatedly. This was so incredibly easy to do with the Pfaff. All I had to do was put on the 1/4" foot (with the guide), put the built-in walking foot down.....and then simply keep the guide on the line that I wanted to follow. The end result was a very nice, very even 1/4" outline every single time.

In the light areas of the scrappy half square triangles I did a feather within a feather type of free motion quilting. Once I got used to the feel of the Pfaff, the free motion went very easily and very quickly. It's a wonderful machine to free motion quilt on. Just need to practice a bit more to keep my stitch size consistently consistent. The corner blocks were done using a flower that kept on going all the way out to the edges of the block. Finally, the outer border was done using a free-hand feather motif. Oh! And I did stitch-in-the-ditch on all the borders, including the dark parts of the half square triangle border. I used a foot that has a guide in the middle of the foot. All you have to do is keep this guide right in the seam....and the needle just follows along behind. Works like a dream!! And, yes, I will be making more quilts on the Pfaff. :.)

Shearing is Done!!

Shearing is done!!! Yea!!! All 21 sheep are now sheared and loving their new look. I finished up the last one a couple of days ago. Feels absolutely wonderful to have it done, too. :.} Now the task of skirting and sorting begins. I have only set a couple aside as mine. The rest of the fleeces will be offered up for sale. And there are some very lovely fleeces this year. :.}

Every year there is at least one fleece that stands out for one reason or another. This year it happened to be a lamb's fleece. It stood out for several reasons. One is the color. This fleece is light gray (almost white in places) at the base and graduates in various shades of gray until the tip is reached.....where it is black. We have pulled several locks from various parts of the fleece and every lock has this same coloration.

The second reason this fleece stood out is that it was so clean.....which is rather unusual for a lamb fleece around here. My lamb fleeces tend to collect quite a bit of vegetation in them. The lambs are always in the feeder, under the larger sheep, under the llamas, or climbing over each other. So it's not unusual to get a lamb fleece that makes you want to say "yuck" when you see it. Usually the worse parts can be skirted and you are left with a pretty decent fleece that takes just a little bit more work than normal to clean up. That wasn't the case with this fleece. Very little skirting had to be done and it looks like it will be a sheer joy to work with. I honestly don't know how this little lamb managed to stay so clean. Especially since.........

Reason number Three.......the staple length of this fleece is ..................14"!!!!!!! Yes, it was hard to believe, but several locks were pulled from different areas of the fleece and measured. Then measured again. The staple length of this fleece is a whopping 14". I have never had a fleece this long before. It's incredible! Plus the fiber is amazingly soft and has a nice soft sheen to it. And all this from a little lamb who turned a year old a couple of weeks ago. Makes me wonder what his adult fleece will be like next year. :.} Needles to say this fleece has been set aside for myself. I can't wait for the weather to warm up (it actually snowed here a couple of days ago) so I can get it washed and start playing with it.